Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Harry Potter fan fiction (I know, isn't it awful!), available at http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2269863/Less_Wrong. "Petunia married a professor, and Harry grew up reading science and science fiction. Then came the Hogwarts letter..." http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2269863/Less_Wrong. 1347 standard pages as of Chapter 85 (see second readthrough for details). First read (August 2010 - September 2011) Journal Chapters 1-41 I came across it on the 19th of August 2010 when a guest blogger posted a few random sci-fi related links on one of my feeds. He linked to Chapter 25, I think, which I didn't realise and read first (being a non-chronological chapter itself this was very interesting!). I was immediately delighted, intrigued and soon hooked, and read from Chapter 1 to Chapter 41, the limit at the time, by the 26th. I'd never read fanfiction before and couldn't imagine that even if there were good ones it's feasible (or worthwhile) to find them amongst the rubbish, so it was intriguing to find this elaborate yarn spun on the pretty basic premise of Harry Potter being fiendishly rational and scientific and how the fictional world of J. K. Rowling would look from that perspective. After reading as far as the author has written (up to Chapter 41) in a week I found myself scoffing at Gryffindor, thinking Rowling was a bit harsh on Slytherin, and of course that Ravenclaw is THE HOUSE for me (although I think I recall a quiz telling me that anyway once)! It was absolutely fantastic, enthralling, made me laugh aloud at times. I got incredibly frustrated at other times to be fair, when characters endorse points of view that seems foreign to me but by far on the whole it's been very refreshing. Previous book: [[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory|Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]] Next book: [[The Case of the Pope|Geoffrey Robertson, The Case of the Pope]] '''Chapters 42-46' By a week into September chapters up to 46 had been published. Chapters 43-46 (Humanism) was one awesome collection of chapters, in which Harry deconstructs the dementors and defeats one. "One of those tingly moments when you lose control of your facial muscles to a huge grin while you read it." Chapter 47 I read Chapter 47 (Personhood Theory) when it was published on the 25th of September. It was very good, a long discussion between Harry and Draco. Chapters 48-54 By the 26th of October up to Chapter 54 had been published. I was missing the joviality and lightness of the early chapters and felt the story was becoming rather focused and serious and not always clear. "What happened to Harry's determination to do science to magic, to figure it out? He's been using it for awhile without batting an eyelid, despite the implications that originally staggered him. Like what does the Bag of Holding look like to Quirrel when he's inside it? Just curious." Chapters 55-56 On the 1st of November I wrote: "Chapters 55 and 56: Interesting. Amelia Bones is refreshing, Harry's escape from despair was good, Dumbledore was intriguing. The current plot thread is becoming worthwhile." Chapters 57-58 On the 7th of November: "Chapters 57 and 58. I liked these ones, the drawing out of what Harry had transfigured was a bit cheesy :P but I liked seeing him working, and thinking, and Quirrel had some interesting things to say." Chapters 59-61 On the 25th of November: "Chapters 59-61. I read chapter 59 a while ago, and 60 a few days ago. They were pretty crap, I just didn't know what was going on anymore and thought Harry and Quirrell's conversation was dire. 61 came out tonight and it was much better :)" Chapters 62-63 On the 29th of November: "Chapters 62 and 63: Getting a bit heavy and depressing. I disagree with some of Harry's conclusions (regarding, for instance, the 3/40 people in the Milgram experiment) and with some of his preoccupations (for instance, getting all heavy and worried about identities). We'll see how it goes, but I miss the earlier on lightness and fun and clarity and science." Chapters 64-67 On the 14th of January 2011: "Chapters 64 and 65 came out like a week ago, and 66 and 67 today. Nothing impressive, but not every chapter has to be. Quirrell's idea of Harry pretending to defeat a returned Voldemort was so neatly beyond the moral horizon that I thought it was stupid that Harry didn't reject it outright." Chapters 68-69 On the 28th of January: "Chapter 68 came out a few days ago and 69 just now, quite liked where it ended up :) Bit more optimistic now about the brightness/silliness/light-heartedness of the series." Chapters 70-72 These chapters came out at one- or two- month intervals. The unexpected pace-slackening meant I accrue enough stuff to feel justified in updating the wiki before forgetting what I'd thought :P Chapters 73-75 At the end of August 2011 Yudkowsky posted several new chapters in quick succession, and explained that he'd decided to stop publishing chapters as he wrote them so that he could publish the rest of the current sequence at a quicker pace than his writing speed. On the 1st of September 2011: "This Self-actualization sequence is really confusing me. I just don't know what the point of it is, where it's going, and why Yudkowsky is devoting so many chapters to it. It's kinda boring me in a way. The older, one-off chapters and shorter sequences worked better. Then again, it may be the phenomenon of reading a lot of fic that was written before you heard about it and reading each chapter as it's published, hungry for gold-dust. With that in mind, the rational thing to do would be to stop reading the fic for a few years :P" I was happier, however, with the latest chapters and curious to see where it would go. Chapter 76 On the 5th of September: "Chapter 76 was awesome! Apparently (reading his author notes) Chapter 74 was supposed to be some sort of Crowning Chapter of AwesomeI wrote this based on the author's notes at the time, I think, but I just noticed he's mentioned it again - Sep 14th '11 authors notes, he's complaining that it's hard to write when he's always criticising himself and says: "I mean, there are parts that I know are good, like Ch. 74, I'm not dumb". Yeeaah..., but I really didn't get that at all. So he had a character do some ritual with as many secret references to other works as he could squeeze in. Lar dee dar... But this chapter (which apparently he doesn't think is that well written) was really awesome, Harry giving Dumbledore what for and standing up for his old philosophies again, and Hermione being harassed by some mysterious figure with Groundhog Day powers XD" Chapter 77 On the 7th of September: "Chapter 77 out. Very interesting! Bit of insight into Snape, but more significantly the MoR!prophecy has been brought into some light." Final thoughts After the flurry of updates from Yudkowsky, and having reread Self-actualization and realising how little I remembered, I started reading the fic from the beginning again, so here endeth this read-through! Second read (September 2011 and still going) Format Mix of kindle (from the pdf), online, and printed booklets. I've found out that it's (as of chapter 85) 2594050 characters longI copied and pasted the whole thing, chapter by chapter, into Notepad++., which is 1347 standard pages. Journal Chapters 1-17 On the 21st of September: "I've been reading it again from the beginning, on-and-off, since Bromyard. Currently at Chapter 17. It's really good to read it again from the start, the early chapters have a nostalgia now, it's been so long and I've read so much of the fic! ... Major thoughts from rereading the early chapters: I miss the quotes at the beginning of the chapters (often quotes from the next, at-the-time-unpublished, chapter)!" Chapter 18 (Dominance Hierarchies) Read this one on the 25th of September (having given Bleak House a decent try :/). I had complicated feelings about this chapter, even wondering whether I should deal out a new rating, one for how much I like something and one for how complicated my feelings are! I did feel, however, that I was still enjoying the fic (foreseeing that at some point I might not, so much). Chapters 19-20 Read these in bed on the 25th of September. Felt that I understood the "learning how to lose" section more than the first time. However, I disliked Chapter 20, felt that it ended with a very hard to understand dynamic between Dumbledore, Harry and Quirrell. Chapter 21 (Rationalization) I started rating the chapters as I read them, on my Kindle - I'd been intending to review and rate each chapter but couldn't do so as fast as I read them. A rating is easier, and sufficient! 2 Chapter 22 (The Scientific Method) 3 Chapter 23 (Belief in Belief) 3 Chapter 24 (Machiavellian Intelligence Hypothesis) 3 Chapter 25 (Hold Off on Proposing Solutions) 3 Chapter 26 (Noticing Confusion) 2 Chapter 27 (Empathy) 3 Chapter 28 (Reductionism) 3 Chapter 29 (Egocentric Bias) 2 Chapter 30 (Working in Groups, Pt 1) 3 Chapter 31 (Working in Groups, Pt 2) 1 Chapter 32 (Interlude: Personal Finance Management) 2 Chapter 33 (Coordination Problems, Pt 1) 2 Chapter 34 (Coordination Problems, Pt 2) 0 Chapter 35 (Coordination Problems, Pt 3) 2 Chapter 36 (Status Differentials) 3 Chapter 37 (Interlude: Crossing the Boundary) 0 Chapter 38 (The Cardinal Sin) 2 Chapter 39 (Pretending to be Wise, Pt 1) 3 Chapter 40 (Pretending to be Wise, Pt 2) 1 Chapter 41 (Frontal Override) 3 Chapter 42 (Courage) 2 Chapter 43 (Humanism, Pt 1) 3 Chapter 44 (Humanism, Pt 2) 2 Chapter 45 (Humanism, Pt 3) 3* (3-star: amazing!) Chapter 46 (Humanism, Pt 4) 2 Chapter 47 (Personhood Theory) Read on the 3rd of October 2011. 3 Chapter 48 (Utilitarian Priorities) 2 Chapter 49 (Prior Information) 2 Chapter 50 (Self Centredness) 2 Chapter 51 (Title Redacted, Pt 1) 1 Chapter 52 (The Stanford Prison Experiment, Pt 2) 2 Chapter 53 (The Stanford Prison Experiment, Pt 3) 2 Chapter 54 (The Stanford Prison Experiment, Pt 4) 3 Chapter 55 (The Stanford Prison Experiment, Pt 5) 2/3 Chapter 56 (TSPE, Constrained Optimization, Pt 6) 3 Chapter 57 (TSPE, Constrained Optimization, Pt 7) Low 3 Chapter 58 (TSPE, Constrained Optimization, Pt 8) 2 Chapter 59 (TSPE, Curiosity, Pt 9) 2 Chapter 60 (The Stanford Prison Experiment, Pt 10) 1 Chapter 61 (TSPE, Secrecy and Openness, Pt 11) 2 Chapter 62 (The Stanford Prison Experiment, Final) Read on the 7th of October. 3 Chapter 63 (TSPE, Aftermaths) 3 Chapter 64 (Omake Files 3, Alternate Parallels) 3 Chapter 65 (Contagious Lies) 3 Chapter 66 (Self-Actualization, Pt 1) 2 Chapter 67 (Self-Actualization, Pt 2) 3 Chapter 68 (Self-Actualization, Pt 3) 1 Chapter 69 (Self-Actualization, Pt 4) 2 Chapter 70 (Self-Actualization, Pt 5) 1 Chapter 71 (Self-Actualization, Pt 6) Read on the 9th of October. 1 Chapter 72 (SA, Plausible Deniability, Pt 7) 1 Chapter 73 (SA, The Sacred and the Mundane, Pt 8) 3 Chapter 74 (SA, Escalation of Conflicts, Pt 9) 0 Chapter 75 (Self Actualization Final, Responsibility) 2 Chapter 76 (SA After, Surface Appearances, since swapped with Chapter 77 and changed to SA Aftermaths, Surface Appearances) 3 Chapter 77 (Interlude with the Confessor: Sunk Costs) Read on the 12th of October. 3 Simultaneous books: [[Bleak House|Charles Dickens, Bleak House]] (attempted), [[Lying|Sam Harris, Lying]] Next book: [[The Kite Runner|Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner]] Update 11/03/12 Rumours of the next sequence have been stirring recently. Indeed, in an author's note (not to be relied upon of course) he mentioned his intention to start it by today. It's been so long since the last chapter that I really feel I should put off reading any more for a year or something, so I can start from the beginning again and have a substantial amount more to read after Chapter 77. However, I'm sure I won't be able to resist reading anything he publishes while I'm on placement and looking for distractions of any kind. Chapter 78 (Taboo Tradeoffs Prelude: Cheating) Came out in the wee hours of 12/03/12 but I put off reading it until 28/04/12 when the entire arc had been completed. Read it all on the 28th, on the way to work and in my break. It was fun, had another battle and some interesting tactics by all sides - having some of the children's parents secretly watching was fun - but I was not keen on Harry's unlocking the secrets of potion making in a bit of a handwave. I'm sceptical about the likelihood of this new found talent being added to Harry's pool of skills effectively. A strange conflict between Hermione and Draco has begun and we are yet to see where it shall lead! 2 Chapter 79 (Taboo Tradeoffs, Pt 1) 1 Chapter 80 (Taboo Tradeoffs, Pt 2, The Horns Effect) 1 Chapter 81 (Taboo Tradeoffs, Pt 3) 1 Chapter 82 (Taboo Tradeoffs, Final) 1 Chapter 83 (Taboo Tradeoffs, Aftermath 1) 1 Read Chapters 79-83 in bed on the 28th. Very puzzled about the significance, why Harry would show off so publicly, why a child would be sentenced to Azkaban, and generally what I'm supposed to be thinking right now. Hopefully the next two chapters will resolve some of these matters. Chapter 84 (Taboo Tradeoffs, Aftermath 2) 2 Chapter 85 (Taboo Tradeoffs, Aftermath 3, Distance) 2 Third read (June 2012) Format Strictly online only (to make sure it was the latest revision). Journal Eliezer called for 'Britpicks', asking British readers to search the first 37 chapters for Americanisms, on reddit at the end of May 2012. I figured I could bash through those chapters in a weekend, picking out spelling mistakes without much difficulty. However, it emerged from the responses of other readers that there is a lot even I'm not sure on, and also that even just looking for spelling mistakes takes a long time. So, as I trawled through the sentences, I had plenty of time to reflect on the story itself, in particular in light of my recent discovery that Quirrell is not just supposed to be Voldemort, but it is supposed to be obvioushttp://william-likes-reading.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/found-out-quirrell-is-voldemort-in.html. I also started updating my individual chapter length analysis with single-sentence summaries of each chapter. Part 1 (Prologue) The events leading up to Harry's first morning waking at Hogwarts. Characterised by each chapter driving the story onwards to that point, where the story pace slackens off perceptibly. (144 pages) Chapter 1 (A Day of Very Low Probability) Letter (7 pages) 3 Chapter 2 (Everything I Believe is False) McGonagall (4 pages) 3 Chapter 3 (Comparing Reality to its Alternatives) Leaky Cauldron to the bank (story of Voldemort) (5 pages) 3 Chapter 4 (The Efficient Market Hypothesis) Gold in the bank vault (5 pages) 3 Chapter 5 (The Fundamental Attribution Error) Mokeskin pouch and fitting robes with Malfoy (9 pages) 3 Chapter 6 (The Planning Fallacy) Shopping - Harry and McGonagall get acquainted (29 pages) 3 Chapter 7 (Reciprocation) Platform 9 3/4 - Harry and Draco get acquainted (32 pages) 3 Chapter 8 (Positive Bias) On the train - Harry and Hermione get acquainted (16 pages) 3 Chapter 9 (Title Redacted, Part I) The Sorting begins (Ghostbusters) (4 pages) 2 Chapter 10 (Self Awareness, Part II) Harry and the Sorting Hat get acquainted (11 pages) 3 Chapter 11 (Omake Files 1 and 2) Omake (4 pages) 3 Chapter 12 (Impulse Control) Harry dwells on his conversation with the Hat, Dumbledore and Quirrell introduced (11 pages) 3 Part 2 (Hogwarts begins) Harry's experience of Hogwarts begins. Characterised by a slow pace, as many potential plotlines begin to emerge. (unknown length) Chapter 13 (Asking the Wrong Questions) The game (19 pages) 3 Chapter 14 (The Unknown and the Unknowable) Getting the Time-Turner (14 pages) 3 Chapter 15 (Conscientiousness) First Charms and Transfiguration lessons - Harry and Hermione's rivalry kicks off (10 pages) 2 Chapter 16 (Lateral Thinking) First Defence lesson (19 pages) 2 Chapter 17 (Locating the Hypothesis) Time-Turner antics - Harry and Dumbledore get acquainted (37 pages) 3 Chapter 18 (Dominance Hierarchies) First Potions lesson: Harry and Snape get acquainted (27 pages) 3 Chapter 19 (Delayed Gratification) Learning to lose (23 pages) 2 Chapter 20 (Bayes's Theorem) Harry and Quirrell get acquainted (18 pages) 2 Ratings, awards, mentions and recommendations My overall rating (so far): 3 Top Pick! =Links and references= Category:Books with 3 rating Category:Top Picks Category:Books Category:Works Category:Fan-fiction books Category:Fantasy books Category:Science and rationalism books Category:Books read in 2010 Category:Books read in 2011 Category:2010s books Category:American books Category:Harry Potter